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Video: Strong winds pushed ice sheets ashore at Minnesota lake

Strong winds pushed ice sheets ashore at a lake in northern Minnesota this past weekend (especially Saturday morning, May 11). The ice crawled across people’s lawns and up to their doorsteps on the south side of Lake Mille Lacs (pronounced Mil-LACs) in the town of Onamia, Minnesota. Many described it as looking like a mini glacier. The ice reached the doors and windows of people’s homes at the Izatys Resort.

Winds of 30 to 40 miles an hour pushed lake water into the ice, and drove it ashore. About 10 miles of shoreline were covered, with ice in some places reaching up to 30 feet (10 meters) high. By Sunday, May 13, winds were lighter, and the ice stopped pushing forward.

Mille Lacs is French for One Thousand Lakes. The lake got the name because of it size; it is the second largest lake in Minnesota, with an area of 132,516 acres or over 207 square miles (536 square kilometers). It was reported on the YouTube page for the second video above that maintenance personal for Izatys Resort said that clean up could take all summer. That’s because the ice moved massive boulders from the lake shore, and even some from under water, onto the shore.

Bottom line: Residents at the Izatys Resort in northern Minnesota experienced something like a mini glacier on May 11, 2013 when strong winds pushed ice from Mille Lacs Lake onto their lawns and up right up to the edge of their homes.

Posted 
May 13, 2013
 in 
Earth

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Deborah Byrd

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